Tiverton Town 0 - 0 Willand Rovers

Friday 20/07/2012 Friendly

Nigel Davis

Having put five past Crediton United the previous night, Willand came into this game on a high and any disappointment at losing the spine of their team was not in evidence. There is no doubt that without goalkeeper Brian Cann, who has retired, along with the Taunton bound trio of centre-half Ben Mammola, midfielder Rob Norrish and forward Dean Stamp, a rebuild of the side is in progress and, without others who were on holiday, manager Clive Jones set his stall on containing Tivvy and pressing them on the break.

Willand’s George Rogers, son of Martyn, played his part in the evening’s entertainment but star of the show was undoubtedly their goalkeeper Zak Lee, staking a claim to the number one shirt. He denied Michael Nardiello and Joe Bushin in quick succession early on and midway through the half blocked a close range Nardiello shot and was always a thorn in Tivvy’s side.

Willand might have taken the lead on the half hour when Khaled Badavi wriggled his way through but shot tamely into the side netting. Then five minutes before the interval a neat Willand move ended when Jamie Skinner’s thunderbolt took a slight deflection only for Chris Wright to leap spectacularly to tip the ball onto the bar and away to safety.

On the hour, Jules Emati-Emati was in a superb position to put Tivvy ahead but he blasted the ball over from inside the six yard box and near the end Dan Norman came close but once again Tivvy were foiled by Lee. In between Luke Todd came close for Willand and Ryan Draper, on for Wright at the interval, showed he had lost none of his poise by pulling off a brilliant reaction save to deny Alex Hughes.

The Tivvy faithful were left wondering when they might see their next home Yellows’ goal having now gone four games without, the last being Michael Nardiello’s winner in the St Lukes against Plymouth Argyle. One thing is for sure, they won’t be coming up against the likes of Zak Lee for a while.